Posted on 07/28/2015 9:33:07 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
Toyota, due to announce first-quarter earnings next Tuesday, said sales were dragged down by a slowdown in emerging markets and increased taxes on mini vehicles in Japan.
VW's rapid expansion has masked underperformance in the United States and Brazil, where it has been slow to upgrade models and adjust its offerings to market trends, analysts say.
Although boosting market share and brand awareness, VW's race for volume has triggered a costly proliferation of models and equipment, especially in its core passenger-car brand where profit margins have languished amid growing inefficiencies.
With over 310 models and nearly 120 factories worldwide, VW's size may be turning into a disadvantage, forming the backdrop to a leadership crisis in April when ex-chairman Ferdinand Piech was ousted after publicly criticizing CEO Winterkorn.
VW's top management has since been trying to regain the initiative, though other top players, notably its unions and stakeholder Lower Saxony, are seeking to influence the course of its move to a leaner structure as VW is pushing 5 billion euros of cost savings in its core division.
Wolfsburg-based VW last year started shifting its focus to boosting earnings quality to help fund growing technology needs and plant upgrades.
VW has a goal of "moderately" raising deliveries from last year's record 10.14 million cars. The group will publish first-half results on Wednesday. ($1 = 0.9042 euros)
(Excerpt) Read more at mobile.reuters.com ...
“Oh, the Jetta’s are going to feel this one!”
I’ll take a Toyota over a VW any day or year.
I actually like Jettas myself. Decent gas mileage and whatnot.
The rankings change year to year and there is production vs. revenue. But GM and Ford are there in the top 5.
Jan is not going to be happy about this.
Toyota has done so well for so long in building great value vehicles that this is hard to believe. Has Toyota been slacking of late?
“The Land of the Rising Sun” and “Deutschland Ueber Alles” have outstripped the products of the territory once known as “the United States of America”.
Who the hell won the Second World War, anyway? (Unfair question. Most people couldn’t even name the players or how they were aligned.)
“I’ll take a Toyota over a VW any day or year.”
Amen!
I’ve had 4 VW’S (3 diesels), and as great as the mpg was, I found them to be built very tinny, very expensive to repair, and had design flaws like ridiculously low ground clearance.
I went with Toyota for the last 7 years and believe their vehicles to be superior for low cost of ownership, low maint, high durability, better design.
Surprising - I’ve found anywhere you travel, it’s a Toyota world
Ditto that for Central America & Africa. However, Toyota's market is world-wide, but is smaller quantities. VW has the big Euro market.
GM, Ford & Chrysler used to have the big, concentrated US market.
We’ve always been a VW Family. Dad has had 17 through the years from Karmann Ghias to those goofey bus/van things. My first car was a 1971 Baby Blue VW Bug, standard. Paid $1,700.00 for it. Later I had a Jetta, but it had a lot of fuel injection problems (’80-something), so I got rid of it.
I currently have a 2001 Golf with only 33,000 miles on it. It belonged to my Step Mom and she left it to me when she passed. She was the original ‘Little Old Lady’ driver, LOL!
VW owns the following cars being manufactured - Audi, VW, Porsche, Skoda, and Lamborghini. Most people do not realize that the VW Bug beetle (original) is still produced in Mexico. Vw s are also manufactured in China. GM left the Chinese market just last year.
GM China is very much alive and well, with three of the ten top selling cars.
I realize it’s not a reliable source, but not sure they would need to lie about VWs in Mexico.
http://money.cnn.com/2003/07/30/pf/autos/bc.autos.vw.beetle/
VW also has the following vehicles as a manufacturing aspect Bentley, Bugatti and Ducati Motorcycles. It also manufactures commercial vehicles in Germany. It also has 19% share in Suzuki Motors. If my memory is right VWs are manufactured in 153 countries.
Regarding the old beetle being built in Mexico, I have family that lives in Texas and they claim that VW is still manufactured in Mexico.
VW is definitely manufacturing in Mexico - over 16,000 employees.
Just not the old beetle.
I’ve had many VW’s. Very disappointed in VW when they had the engine sludge issue that siezed the 1.8 T engines in many Jetta’s and Passats.
Total lack of accountability to a faulty design and it was hushed up.
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